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The Leftover Thermalization
"The Leftover Thermalization" is the eighteenth episode of the eighth season of the American sitcom The Big Bang Theory. The episode aired on Thursday, March 12, 2015. Summary The final dinner cooked by Debbie Wolowitz is served when the loss of electricity defrosts her freezer. A magazine publishes an article on Sheldon and Leonard's work without mentioning Leonard's contribution. Extended Plot As Sheldon checks out his Letter box|mail box, he finishes reciting the irrational constant pi to one thousand places. Amy remarks that she was sorry she asked, but she hadn't asked for him to do it. Sheldon gets his Scientific American magazine which has an article on the theory that Leonard proposed and Sheldon helped develop, but the article only mentions "Dr. Cooper and his team" having worked on it. Leonard is not identified. Sheldon only answered their questions. Amy tells Sheldon that Leonard is going to be very upset like the time Sheldon didn't get picked to pull the sword out of the stone at Disneyland. Now Sheldon knows how Leonard will feel. Raj and Howard head over to his mother's house to go through her things. He finds it hard sorting through everything. Raj had the same experience going through an uncle's possessions and found that he worshiped the Hindu deity Shiva despite claiming to worship an avatar of Vishnu named Krishna. A lot of his mother's stuff brings back fond memories though Bernadette wonders about the Drawer (furniture)|drawer full of catsup packets. Sheldon tries to tell Leonard about the omission of his name in the article with the example that Leonard's name is not on the cable TV bill. Telling him that he is not going to like what he is about to say, Sheldon mentions the article and Leonard thinks that they hated it. The article did praise their work, but didn't mention Leonard. Sheldon tries to help lose his anger by giving him a massage which Leonard doesn't want. "Cooper and his team?" exclaims Leonard. Sheldon for once says that he had nothing to do about the byline. Leonard says that the bright side is that they are talking about the theory. Sheldon agrees that that is what is important like when Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man and only Stan Lee is ever mentioned, gets all the money, is in the all the movies, etc. Leonard is very unhappy. At his mother's house, Stuart is still living there. Howard tried putting him out on the curb, but nobody took him. Stuart tells Howard that the Electric power|power is going to be out until the next day. After ask how long after the power out, Howard runs to check the freezer and finds the food defrosting. Howard is upset because it is the last food his mother ever made and they can't refreeze it. He wants them to eat it, though there is twenty pounds of food. To use up all the food, Howard decides to invite everyone over for a meal. It will be like his mother is feeding them one last time. In Penny's place, Leonard is still Depression (mood)|depressed over his name being excluded. Penny wonders who even reads Scientific American especially with no celebrity on the cover. She is going to cheer him up by going online to shopping|shop for him. Leonard says that that is her cheering up thing until she finds a helicopter with a camera making him feel better. Sheldon comes in after talking to the author of the article who has been following his work for years and only did the article because Sheldon's name was connected with it. Also they made an editorial Decision making|decision to only list the lead author. He did try to add Leonard's name to the cable bill, but they took too long. Also Howard called to invite them over for dinner. On the way to the Wolowitz house, both Sheldon and Leonard are complaining to their girls about the magazine article. Amy tells Sheldon that is was Leonard's idea; however, Sheldon has ideas all the time. i.e. Reverse SeaWorld where dolphins pet people. Was it his Fault (legal)|fault that he has a bigger reputation or that his name came first? Amy agreed. Then he asked if it was his fault that he didn't correct the author and Amy starts looking the pretty bird off to her left. Leonard is upset that Sheldon is willing to let everyone think that he did all the work. Penny counters with that is why he is getting an iPad helicopter. In the kitchen, Raj, Bernadette and Howard start to prepare their meal. He finds strange things in the freezer like cake from his Bar mitzvah and his prom boutonniere. The meal consists of three briskets, four meatloafs, Jewish ravioli (noodle strudel), two pound cakes, a tub of matzo ball soup and no vegetables. His mother thought she could cure any Disease|sickness with her cooking including the time Howard got food poisoning from it. A distraught Howard then laments that he'll never get to talk to his mother again, bringing a compassionate Bernadette to give him a comforting hug and ask him if he wants to call off the dinner. Howard declines, saying he wants to go ahead with the dinner. Bernadette agrees and tells him she'll keep it together if he can, but a blubbering Raj replies to them that he won't make any such promise. Stuart escorts the guys into the living room lit by candles and Menorah (Hanukkah)|menorahs. Penny thinks everything looks beauty|beautiful. Sheldon comes in, says hello and then "Hello, Leonard" who has to be mentioned by name. Howard tells everyone that this is not a sad occasion and that they are going to have the kind of dinner they have had so many times before including the heartburn. The girls tell the guys to behave themselves which they agree to. Then Stuart asks about the Academic paper|paper they wrote together. At the table, the food is found to be delicious even though there are not vegetables. Howard corrects them that he has tomatoes in the packets of catsup. Amy feels like they are in an 18th century French Salon (gathering)|salon due to the candle lighting. Sheldon describe to Penny that the French salon is where intellectuals talk about the issues of the day. Penny compares it to The View (U.S. TV series)|The View. Amy tells Sheldon what "The View" is, which Sheldon is aware of. Whoopi Goldberg is on it as she was on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He tries to describe that to Penny who tells him to shut up. The topic of female equality among super heroes comes up, since in the revamped Marvel universe, Thor (mispronounced Tor) is going to be a woman. Amy quips that there won't be equality until Thor is a mother and the others are fine with her pumping out breast milk at work. Sheldon just wants to keep the topic on an intellect level as in a French salon. It is all about execution. Leonard complains that Sheldon would prefer execution over inspiration like with their paper. Howard favors execution since he is an engineer bringing concepts to reality. Sheldon agrees; however, Leonard notes that Sheldon always tears down Howard and engineering as a profession. Penny wants them to stop because if she wanted to hear bitchiness, she would go to her real hair salon|salon. Sheldon and Leonard really start fighting until Bernadette gets angry and demands that Sheldon and Leonard go into the living room. She is heard yelling at the top of her voice that Howard is dealing with the loss of his mother. Then Howard wants to know if they think that she sounds like his mother. Everyone says that they never noticed that, but they aren't very convincing. Finally everyone is overstuffed and lying around the living room. Penny doesn't think she ever ate that much food in her entire life. Sheldon finds out that the research paper was mentioned in Physics Today and that Leonard was credited. A unenthusiastic "yay" is heard. Bernadette comes down the Stairs|steps saying that she found more Tums for their upset stomachs and a more enthusiastic "yay" is heard. Credits * Guest starring: ** Kevin Sussman as Stuart Bloom * Teleplay: Eric Kaplan, Jim Reynolds & Steve Holland * Story: Steven Molaro, Maria Ferrari & Jeremy Howe Notes *'Title Reference:' The title refers to all of Mrs. Wolowitz's leftovers that are going to spoil if not consumed. *Taping date: February 18, 2015 *This episode was watched by 16.13 million people with a rating of 4.4 (adults 18-49). *Total viewers including DVR users 21.01 million. *The Big Bang Theory was ranked #2 for the week ending 15 March 2015. *This episode aired in Canada on March 12, 2015 with 4.07 million viewers with a weekly ranking of #1. *In the United Kingdom, this episode aired on Thursday, May 7, 2015 on the E4 channel. *In Australia, it aired on April 13, 2015 with 0.91 million viewers. *Episode transcript https://bigbangtrans.wordpress.com/series-8-episode-18-the-leftover-thermalization/ Critics *Jesse Schedeen at IGN - Early on, this conflict worked pretty well. It was a little refreshing to see Sheldon genuinely concerned about the effect the article would have on his friend. Maybe Amy had to translate the issue into terms he could understand… This conflict lost most of its humor as the episode wore on. Worse, it made both characters come off extremely poorly...There were a couple of standout moments in the kitchen as Howard wrestled with his grief. Helberg didn't make the mistake of playing it too big or too sappy, and there was definitely an authenticity to his performance as Howard wrestled with the notion that he was about to eat the last food his mother ever cooked… And as much as Leonard and Sheldon's squabbling wore out its welcome, at least they both got their just desserts when a ticked-off Bernadette came to the rescue…. we were reminded that there's more than a little of the late Mrs. Wolowitz in Howard's wife. In a way, her legacy lives on in this show, and that's a nice thought. http://www.ign.com/articles/2015/03/13/the-big-bang-theory-the-leftover-thermalization-review *IMDb Reviews http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3862722/reviews?ref_=tt_urv Goofs *Even though Howard asks if everyone thinks that Bernadette sounds like his late mother and they disagree, others have noted the similarity. In "The Good Guy Fluctuation" (S5E7), Sheldon mistakes Bernadette's voice for Mrs. Wolowitz and calls the similarity unsettling. **At one point, having Melissa Rauch take over the role of Mrs. Wolowitiz was briefly considered, due to her spot-on impression. *Penny doesn't know who the Marvel Comics hero Thor is even though the girls argued about his hammer in "The Bakersfield Expedition" (S6E13). In her defense, Raj's did mispronounce "Thor" as "Tor" (even though he did dress as him for the first season Halloween party in "The Middle-Earth Paradigm":S1E6). In Scandinavian languages, the hard "th" sound ( the letter þ still used in some Nordic languages) is the "Th-" of "Thor". Refer to English words like "that" and "then" for the correct sound. Raj wasn't completely right, but still nearer than if he'd used the soft "th" of "thin" or "think". In the original Scandinavian, it's "þor". * Sheldon explains what a salon is to Penny, although in "The Isolation Permutation" (S5E8), Sheldon says the apartment was once an "intellectual salon where the mind received nourishment as sell as the stomach". * If the power was out, how was the stove working? ** It was a gas stove. Trivia *Another salute or toast to the late Mrs. Wolowitz by the whole gang. *In her freezer, Howard's mother kept his boutonniere from his high school prom and a piece of his Bar Mitzvah} cake, though nothing from his Category:Leonard-Penny Engaged Category:Season 8 Category:Amy Category:Penny Category:Bernadette Category:Howard Category:Raj Category:Leonard Category:Sheldon Category:Howard-Bernadette Category:Penny has a job Category:Shamy Category:Leonard and Sheldon Fight Category:Superheroes Category:Mrs. Wolowitz Category:Stuart Category:Raj-Emily Together Category:The Big Bang Theory Category:Episodes Category:Wolowitz House Category:Penny's Short Hair Category:Raj Talks Without Alcohol Category:Winter episodes